Tumbling Down
by hello heartbreak
Summary: Kurosaki Ichigo and Kuchiki Rukia hate each other to the core, but she finds herself in a stupid bet one of her friends made with him, and now he owns her for a week. — AU. Eventual IchiRuki. Chapter Four: Another bet, possibly even worse than the first.
1. Chapter One

_Standard Disclaimer applies for this chapter and all chapters that follow: I don't own Bleach._

_Author's Notes: STOP THE EVIL PLOTBUNNIES FROM DOMINATING MY BRAIN! I have to stop starting new stories and start ending some. For now, please feast on this clichéd storyline that popped out of nowhere. I blame the bunnies._

---

**Tumbling Down.  
**_Chapter One._

"WHAT!"

The whole canteen turned to look at them, not that they weren't conspicuous enough, or recognized enough. Shuuhei clapped a hand over Rukia's mouth swiftly to keep her from making further excessive noise.

"Come on, you just have to spend one week of your entire life with him! Besides, I doubt he'd do anything to you, since you guys hate each other so much…" his confident voice trailed off weakly at the end as he managed a slanted grin under her terrifying glare.

"And why, may I ask, do _I_ have to fulfill a fucking debt that _you_ made with **_him_**?" Rukia snarled, slamming her fist on the table at every pause she made and attracting more attention.

"Because I have a thousand dollars and my entitlement as a student in this school at stake," Shuuhei mumbled back as a reply, hanging his head in genuine shame. At this, his female companion simmered down and sat next to him.

"Damn it Shuuhei, whatever possessed you to bet your _existence_ in this school with that bastard?" she asked, placing her head in her hands. "You know he has the power to drag you out of this school and even _I _can't do anything about it because _you_ initiated the bet."

The tattooed male stared at her, wounded. "I didn't _initiate_ it!" he sputtered.

"Yes, but you _agreed_ to it, so it's your own fault," she pointed out matter-of-factly, ignoring the "puppy-dog eyes look" he was giving her. "I still can't believe you practically _sold_ me at a thousand bucks. _Me_, your best childhood friend!" she continued, glowering at him accusingly. He shrugged a little helplessly and turned away in the other direction. Sheesh, so he was giving her the "silent treatment" now.

"So I guess that means you're not going to help me," Shuuhei said a little coldly, and stood up to leave the table. Exasperated, Rukia stuck out a hand and pulled him back. "No, I didn't say that." His eyes immediately lit up, and he returned to his previous position.

The raven-haired girl rolled her eyes and folded her arms before saying very seriously, "Do you realize that my _brother_, and _Renji_, will be after your_ crotch_ if they ever learn of your stupid bet and how it involved _me_, and another _guy_ aside from the three of you?" "Puppy-dog eyes look" again.

"I'll help you, but in a different way," she began, only to be cut off her friend. "So you'll help me?" he asked, almost enthusiastically. She sighed. It was likely that he'd only heard the words "I'll help you" and missed out totally on the "different way" part. He was staring at her as though she'd just given him the elixir of life or something to that extreme. Scratch that, it was _HIGHLY_ likely that he'd only heard the words that he'd wanted to hear.

Knowing that she would regret it greatly later on, Rukia nodded her head slightly as an answer to his question. "_Thank you_, Rukia!" he said, clearly relieved, and stood up once again before striding off in his usual "cool Hisagi style". As he reached the corridor, he turned and looked as though he'd forgotten something.

"Oh, and let's keep this a secret between the two of us shall we? So that your overprotective brother and his faithful minion won't erm, castrate me?" With that, he walked off with a casual wave and a grin.

Rukia scowled. She was _so_ going to kill him when she had the chance and when his existence in the school wasn't at stake. For now, she just had to confront Kurosaki Ichigo, her arch-nemesis since a long time ago. Oh yes, and it was most unfortunate that _he_ was the one who'd just "bought" her for a whole week for a mere thousand freaking dollars. But then again, it would be good to have him out the school, once and for all. She shook her head at that thought – _Nah, the headmaster would never let Kurosaki Ichigo leave the academy, with the amount of school fees he was paying. _

---

Seireitei Academy was a private boarding school that accepted their students based on their merits, talents, and money. Perhaps, money more than the other former reasons. In other words, the whole school was mostly filled with filthy rich kids, and some occasional true geniuses once in a while, who probably survived on scholarships.

Now, just like a gang must have a leader, this school was practically ruled by two groups of people. The Kuchiki, and the Kurosaki. Actually, the Kuchiki just consisted of Kuchiki Byakuya and his sister Rukia, while the Kurosaki was well, just Kurosaki Ichigo himself. They came from the richest families in the country, and just as two leaders of equal status and capability are not too fond of each other, the Kuchiki siblings and Kurosaki Ichigo were as close as say, oil and water. Which meant to say that they definitely did not stick with each other _at all_.

And so, the rest of the school was basically just divided equally to be "followers" of these exceptionally _bright_ pupils, and tried not to get into their affairs as far as they were concerned. Clearly, Shuuhei was not one of them.

Senior Byakuya was too busy being elite and excellent to notice what his little juniors did, preferring to simply remain as someone unreachable and terrifying. Of course, he expressed a certain amount of distaste for the sole member of the only other family which could match with the Kuchiki in terms of business, but that was where he drew the line. No petty fights or pulling of the other's hair (although, Byakuya would have killed _anyone_ who touched his perfect hair), just a few cold glances here and there if they passed each other in the corridors.

His sister, on the other hand, was another matter altogether.

She was a raging spitfire, and hated Kurosaki Ichigo to the core. It was most unfortunate that he felt the exact same way about her. It wasn't known when the hating game started; everyone just took for granted that the two of them were _born_ to detest each other. There was not a single time that they had met without practically biting each other's heads off with verbal insults and lame bickering, really. It usually ended with the both of them stomping off into opposite directions in a huff, rather like a child's fight. Except that these two "children" never _did_ make up and become friends again.

This was why she was hitting herself inwardly with a metal hammer as she made her way to his lunch table, where he was surrounded (as usual) by a group of dorky friends she never made a point to acknowledge. Smashing a hand on his lunch table and startling everyone except for the person himself, she practically bared her teeth at him.

"One week it is," she hissed, knowing very well that he knew what she was talking about. He stood up from his chair, making sure that it screeched long and loud as he did so – Ichigo knew that she hated the sound of screeching metal. She scowled.

"Let's see how long you last," he said before walking away; she swore she saw the slight saunter he had to his normal walk.

"By the way, the bet said that you would let me _OWN_ you for a week, not just accompany me everywhere I go. Which means that you'll have to do whatever I tell you to do," he called over his shoulder. All of a sudden, Kuchiki Rukia couldn't find her jaw because it had dropped a few hundred feet below.

Fuck, she was_ really_ going to kill Hisagi Shuuhei.

_To be continued._

---

_To readers: Bet most of you hated it like hell. XD Apologies if I made Shuuhei too OOC; I couldn't find a better character to fit that role. Rukia isn't CLOSE to anyone in canon except Renji and maybe Kaien. Oh, as for the feud between Ichigo and Rukia, that will be settled in chapters to come. That is, if you guys want me to continue. Personally, I think this plot just sucks, but I really really enjoyed writing it (was grinning the whole way), and would like to continue. Comments, suggestions, anything, just please review and tell me what you think. :)_


	2. Chapter Two

_Author's Notes: Wow, I am really really pleased with the overwhelming response (for me, at least) I received for the previous chapter! A big thank you to all you reviewers out there!_

---

**Tumbling Down.  
**_Chapter Two._

Seireitei Academy was a school for the rich and the spoiled, but it is most unfair to say that the school was one that bent rules and regulations for the richer students… Well, perhaps only those _exceptionally_ rich and charming students like Kuchiki Byakuya, for example, but that was beside the point.

Anyway, the point was to show that no matter what one's status in the society was, one had to share his or her room with a fellow student of the same sex.

And this was a bad thing for Hinamori Momo, because she was Rukia's room mate and the first unlucky person to face the younger Kuchiki's wrath in the morning. The raven-haired girl had woken up, stared at the date shown in her cell-phone, and promptly swore all the way to the bathroom. Even as she showered, muffled cursing could be heard under the loud gushing of water.

Don't get me wrong, Rukia wasn't such a difficult person to get along with. Usually, she would let the younger girl use the bathroom first rather graciously, and did not use such foul language if she could help it. Unless, of course, if she was talking about a particular orange-head who drove her up the wall ever so often.

And yes, this person was the exact reason for her frustration so early in the morning. Today was the day Shuuhei's bet would start to take place, and the day that she would lose her freedom to someone that she really, _really_ didn't like.

Being the smart girl that she was (yes, not all rich people had mushy peas for brains), Momo opted to avoid her room mate for that day at least, and slipped out of the room quietly so as not to further aggravate her senior.

---

When Rukia finally stepped out of her room unhappily, she found herself staring at a tall figure leaning against the wall opposite her door and grinning lazily at her. It was then that she stopped muttering death threats for Shuuhei and began to smile maniacally at the person standing in front of her with his hands shoved into his pockets. Brilliant, just brilliant. Now she would be able to kill Hisagi without even getting her hands dirty.

"You're the best thing that happened to me today, Renji," she remarked in a light tone as she practically skipped past him, swinging her school bag in her hand. The red-head gawked at his friend's awkward behavior and attempted to force down the blush that was rising up to his cheeks (the best thing that happened to her, imagine that!) before following her to class.

It wasn't long before he caught up with her, because of his longer strides and the fact that he was walking faster than usual.

"What?" he asked the girl, who was currently humming to herself (although she was not very in tune) and practically sparkling with that beam on her face.

"Renji, Renji, Renji. I must tell you about how our best friend sold me to the enemy for a mere thousand bucks…"

And she told him everything that happened the day before, leaving out the _small_ detail about how the loser of the bet had to leave the school. Oh, and she did emphasize _a little more_ on the part that Kurosaki Ichigo actually_ owned_ her for a week.

During lunch, Hisagi Shuuhei found that perhaps he should've considered losing the bet and a thousand dollars, _and_ leaving the school, but not face the angry, growling mass of red that was Abarai Renji. The scarred bad-boy suddenly felt very small, but the optimistic part of him thanked the gods that Rukia hadn't told her brother about the bet… yet. It didn't help that his cool bad-boy image that he had so painstakingly built over the years would crumble into dust in a few seconds under the terrifying fist of the red-haired male that stood before him.

Just when Renji was about to beat the lights out of his tattoed _ex_-friend (encouraged by the taunts of "FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT" from the crowd of students around them), Rukia stepped into the circle very gracefully and looked at Shuuhei a little sympathetically.

"Erm, hi?" he managed to utter, despite the stress-filled environment they were currently in. Translation: Thank you for deciding to save poor me, oh holy Rukia-sama!

She smiled at him, and he raised an eyebrow at her questioningly. Translation: Don't bow to me just yet, Shuuhei. I'm just being nice little me.

And then, he caught the impish glint in her violet eyes, and the world crumbled down around him. Translation: Oh. My. God.

"Renji dear, try not to kill him, will you?" She had lapsed into polite speech again, and most people found a dazzling Kuchiki Rukia very, very scary indeed (the circle of students actually cowered in fear and stepped back when her lips curved into a grin). Translation: KILL HIM AND YANK OUT HIS GUTS FOR ME TO DISPLAY ON MY BEDROOM WALL, RENJI.

"I'm going to die," the would-be victim almost whimpered, but braced himself for attack. Translation: I'm going to die.

---

Luckily for him, the bell rang before Renji could do any real damage (like, cut his head in half, for instance), and everyone dissipated to their respective classrooms. Rukia (that bitch!) had actually laughed at the sorry state he was in, limping to the classroom with bruises all over his body. Of course, Renji wasn't much better, because Hisagi Shuuhei _was_ after all their friend, and a strong one at that.

She stopped laughing on her way out of the canteen when she heard a whisper at her ear. "You are so evil."

"Why, thank you!" she replied in an unusually bright voice, which meant that she was going to turn around and punch the poor fellow in the face-

-Except that the "poor fellow" was much taller than her and caught her fist easily, as though he was swatting a fly. He _did_ wince a little at the pain though, because Rukia had a black belt in judo (and had been diligent in letting the whole school know about it).

"Kurosaki," she snarled, snatching her hand back and quickening her pace towards her class.

"You might want to be reminded that you have to do whatever I say from today, till next Wednesday," he said dryly, but she ignored him. "And now I'm telling you to stop, Kuchiki."

She bit her lip, but forced herself to halt, although refusing to turn around to look at him once again. It was most irritating to find that he was behind her again so quickly, and whispering again, "Just testing," before he strode off in the opposite direction.

Rukia wanted to scream and pull her hair out, and probably throw _both_ her shoes at the orange-head, but she glanced at her watch and realized that she was five minutes late for her class, so she merely bit her lip harder and sprinted to her classroom.

---

"Figure 1.67 shows how a ray of light travels from air into gla-" The class was interrupted by a firm click of the sliding door as Kuchiki Rukia walked in, bowing her head in apology for her lateness as she made her way to her seat. Ukitake-sensei frowned a little at her but didn't say anything, and turned to face the blackboard, continuing with his lesson.

It wasn't long before he was interrupted again. "The last time I was late, the teacher gave me _two _days of detention!" came an exaggerated exclamation from the back of the classroom. Rukia felt herself stiffen up but she didn't turn, because she knew what was going to come next.

True enough, another irritatingly high-pitched voice followed, as though she was reading her lines off a cue card. "She thinks she can get away with anything because she's a _Kuchiki_." As usual, the surname was emphasized with that slight drawl at the end, something that pissed the ebony-haired girl off very much, but she held her anger and stared ahead, trying to absorb what was on the blackboard. It was a good thing that Renji wasn't in the class, or she would have to restrain him from hitting the girls and be sent off for counseling about "thinking before acting" _again_.

There was a loud rap on the blackboard as the silver-haired teacher broke a piece of chalk into two clean halves against the black surface. A queasy silence fell over the class as he turned and looked at the group of girls who had been commenting too much for their own good.

"Sakurano-san, I believe you were sent to detention because you were late for _five _consecutive classes," the teacher said in a very calm and quiet voice, but sent a ripple of fear through the students. Ukitake Jyuushirou was not someone you would want to mess with; everyone knew that he had his own special method of dealing with those who interrupted his lessons. The named "Sakurano-san" mumbled something that sounded like an apology as she twirled a lock of hair around her finger nervously, and it was quickly accepted by a curt nod before the lesson resumed.

Rukia wrinkled her eyebrows at the little exchange between student and teacher – she was sure that the hatred directed at her had deepened greatly, but allowed a much suppressed grin to spread across her face; even if most of the female population in the academy didn't exactly _like_ her, she would survive with fair teachers like Ukitake-sensei, somehow. Fortunately, the rest of the Physics lesson went on relatively peacefully, disregarding the awakening of the usual sleepyheads, and a few random students who were caught off-guard for some of the questions asked.

The real ordeal would be after class, Rukia predicted, as she felt the killer glares from Sakurano and her airhead sidekicks who were attempting to burn a hole through the back of her head.

As usual, her fortune-telling skills were exasperatingly accurate, and she found herself being cornered by the same group of girls at her locker. Sighing to herself, she punched her combination into her lock and proceeded to exchange her Physics textbooks for Biology ones with a certain amount of calmness that she had acquired from spending time with her brother. There was no use getting angry with these ditzy idiots; it was a waste of her energy and time.

She clicked her lock back into place and turned to walk away, only to find herself being blocked by one of Sakurano's followers. "I have a class to get to," she tried to say amiably, even throwing in a rare genuine smile, as she pushed through the circle of girls. They didn't budge, as expected.

"You sicken me, Kuchiki Rukia," said the queen bee, with the signature flick to her perfectly styled hair. Rukia resisted the urge to scoff and settled with a cough instead.

"You are nothing, you know that?" At this, the younger Kuchiki narrowed her eyes, but said nothing. It was surprising how she could lash her anger out at males, but preferred to remain silent under the verbal torment of females. "People treat you nicely because of your brother, and Abarai Renji. You have no friends. Even Hisagi Shuuhei, whom you claim to be one of your best childhood friends, didn't even bat an eyelid when he practically sold you to Kurosaki Ichigo!"

Rukia couldn't help but flinch at that sentence because it was true, in a sense. God, these bimbos sure knew where her weak points were. Sensing her discomfort, Sakurano continued her assault rather triumphantly.

"I don't even think your own brother likes you, judging by the way he ignores you when yo-" There was a loud crash, and a slight crumpling sound, causing the whole group of girls to squeal and jump back, leaving Rukia staring at someone she really didn't want to see at the moment.

Kurosaki Ichigo withdrew his fist from the locker beside hers, leaving a huge dent in the middle of the metal door. "That's enough," he muttered darkly at the girls, who scampered away like rats from a flood. Equally darkly, Rukia muttered back at him with less fury than intended, "I didn't need your help, dear knight in _shining armor_," at which he merely shrugged.

"You might want to fix the locker," she remarked dryly after a period of silence. They both turned to look at the disfigured metal door. It belonged to someone named Yamada Hanatarou, whom they both sympathized with inwardly; it wasn't everyday that you got huge dent in your locker for no reason at all.

"Whatever," he replied, and subsequently dumped all his books into her hands. She looked at him as though he'd just grown three horns and tail.

"We're in the same Bio class. You're carrying my books there because of the bet," Ichigo spoke slowly in a mocking tone, as though he was explaining how to drink milk to a three-year-old. "Go to hell," Rukia spat at him, but tightened her grip on both their textbooks before stomping off towards their classroom, despite wanting desperately to throw his books at his face.

It was good that she had missed his grin, or she would have punched him in the face like he had damaged Hanatarou's locker.

---

Rukia was glad to find Renji gesturing at her to sit next to him; there was usually less trouble when she was with him, because everyone was too afraid of him to do anything to her. But no, she had to follow the stupid orange-head to his desk because _he_ didn't want to take his textbooks from her arms. To add on to that, he had insisted that she sat beside him so that she could take notes on his behalf, earning several venomous looks from the females in their class. She rolled her eyes and mouthed an apology to the red-head, who shot an equally venomous look at the person she was sitting next to, for which she was thankful.

Halfway through the lecture, Rukia's pencil broke and she cursed under her breath. "You're doing this on purpose," she hissed at her seat partner, who was currently snoring away with his head on the table.

"How did you _guess_?" he answered sarcastically, brownish eyes flickering open, but didn't bother to lift his head.

"Did you see those glares of death your fan-girls were shooting at me?" she demanded, keeping her voice low as she rummaged in her pencil case for another pencil.

"Yes, I'm aware of how popular I am," he responded, turning his head so that she could only see a shock of orange hair. She had to bite her lip hard to refrain from hitting his head with a metal ruler.

"Asshole," she muttered, wondering why the whole class was gazing at the two of them. Including the teacher, who did not look pleased at all. Uh oh.

"I'd appreciate it if you would abstain from using profanities during Biology class, Kuchiki-san," said the teacher wryly, eying Rukia with distaste.

"I apologize for my mistake, Soi Fong-sensei," the named student replied, a faint blush creeping across her fair complexion as she felt the full impact of an entire class staring at her.

Beside her, Kurosaki Ichigo snorted. This time, she didn't refrain from slapping his head with some random stationery she'd found on her desk, and he rose from his seat, swearing a little too loudly.

"That's it, detention after school, _the both of you_!" Soi Fong shouted, at which the both of them grimaced and bit back on the insults they were about to hurl at each other, instead slumping down into their seats in much the same manner.

---

"What kind of fucked up system makes their students clean the toilets for detention?" Ichigo growled as he threw his mop down onto the ground and glared at it.

"We wouldn't be here if someone hadn't stood up and cursed in the middle of class," Rukia retorted, scrubbing viciously at the sinks.

"You were the one who jabbed my head with a pair of _scissors_!" yelled the orange-head, rubbing the back of his head to make sure it wasn't bleeding, at which his companion smirked, much to his annoyance.

"If you hadn't ordered me to take notes for you in the first place, none of this would've happened," she pointed out, but immediately regretted it when she saw his mouth curve upwards in a sinister grin.

"Oh yes, it slipped my mind that you're_ still_ under my full control," he began in a sickening drawl. "No, you don't-" Rukia interrupted with a horrified look on her face, but was brushed aside quickly. "That means that I can also order you to finish my part of the cleaning." With that, Ichigo strode out of the washroom, leaving her gaping.

"I _HATE_ YOU, KUROSAKI ICHIGO!" the raven-haired girl screamed at his retreating figure and flung the sponge at him.

"The feeling's mutual," he replied, waving a hand and not bothering to turn around. The sponge hit the door as he closed it and slithered down before landing on the wet floor with a disgusting squelch. Rukia could have broken all the cubicle doors in the toilet, _and _blown up all the toilet seats, but she chose to walk over to the door and picked up the sponge before resuming her scrubbing very miserably.

_Just six more days_, she chanted to herself as she dunked the mop into a bucket of murky water.

_To be continued. _

---

_To readers: Yes, I am aware that the characters are pretty OOC, but I DID try my best to make everyone remain in character! I swear. XD This chapter was to show that Rukia is not very popular in school because she has two of the hottest guys hanging around her all the time, and now she has an additional burden which is Kurosaki Ichigo, who enjoys torturing her, but doesn't seem to allow others to torture her. She doesn't like to spar with females verbally because she finds it a waste of time (as mentioned above), so she isn't that much of bitch as depicted in the previous chapter. Sakurano was a just random figure that popped out in my head; no character in Bleach seems mean enough to say those things to Rukia except maybe Gin, but he is definitely not a ditzy airhead and therefore does not fit the role. XD More IchiRuki interaction to come. Oh, and do boarding schools have lockers? I hope so; if not, the whole Ichigo-punching-locker thing wouldn't be valid and I would be very sad. :(_

_Thanks to: **Kitty, **_**_Always Reading, _****_kurenoharu_****_, revanninja, cantabile21, _****_LukeShaehl, _****_onionroach, _****_Kuchiki Rukia-sama, _****_Winterflower, _****_notnow, _****_Sarah Kerrigan, _****_Brok3nRagd0ll_****_, kobisaki, _****_Ori, _****_Sousui, _****_Satan Hat, _****_Danny-171984_****_, dopeypoo, _****_nightxXxshade_****_, jiaxi_**

_**Minitsu**: I apologize for their OOC-ness, but as the plot progresses they will become more into character, I think I can assure you that. :)_

_**Rukiaprincess**: Yes, I will try to finish my other stories! XD_

_**YL**: Here is your Ichigo-torturing-Rukia bit! XDDD _

_Please continue reviewing; receiving reviews in my mailbox is like… eating chocolate ice-cream with lots of fudge on it! XD_


	3. Chapter Three

_Author's Notes: I'm really really sorry for the super late update. Please don't shoot me because I took such a long time to update… All right, shoot me all you want, but here's the next chapter. XDD_

---

**Tumbling Down.**  
_Chapter Three. _

Rukia awoke to the feel of something cold down her neck, instead of the usual tinkling melody of the alarm in her cell-phone, which she would set to ring at exactly seven in the morning so that she wouldn't be late for any morning classes… But that wasn't what she was worrying about at the moment. The wet, cold and slimy thing was sliding down her back slowly, as though someone was urging it to move faster. She opened an eyelid reluctantly and was met with nothing but darkness. Oh yes, and the smell of her sheets. Which were currently suffocating her, because she had somehow gotten herself into a very uncomfortable position on the bed, with her face pressing into the mattress and her butt facing upwards.

That explained why someone had managed to place that slimy thing (it could've been an icepack, but why was it slimy then?) inside her pajamas.

Wait. WHAT?

She scrambled up from the clump of sheets and blinked a few times for her vision to get used to her surroundings. It was still relatively dark, but she knew it was the dark of the morning, and not the dark of the night… Argh, never mind. It was hard to concentrate in the wee hours of the morning, and the wet thing that had just slid out of her pajama shirt didn't make things better. Momo was still sleeping in the bed beside her, which meant that there was someone else in the room…

And then she noticed the flash of orange standing at the doorway, frowning and smirking at her, all at the same time. She'd always found that look very infuriating. Even more so, at this point in time, because she just knew that he was the culprit of putting that wet thing (it _was_ an icepack, she realized) into her shirt.

"What in the FUCK are you doing in the girls' dorm, Kurosaki?" she asked, sounding very much like an irritated mother cat whose babies had just been taken away from her.

"Get up," Ichigo said in a level tone, instead of replying to her question.

"It's four in the morning, and you expect me to get out of bed just because you stormed into my room and woke me up with a fucking ice pack?" Rukia responded, keeping her voice level as well, to match his. Also, she didn't want to wake Hinamori up because of a squabble she was having with an_ idiot_.

The orange-head simply shrugged and turned to walk out, but paused just before he stepped into the corridor, saying, "Hisagi Shuuhei can just transfer out of this school if he wants to."

Oh. Right. The bet. The stupid bet that never should have existed in the first place.

Rukia groaned inwardly, but kept her face stony as she glared at Ichigo, who had turned around to face her again. "Get out of my room while I change," she said begrudgingly, throwing her covers onto the floor and trudging to the bathroom.

"My condolences to your room-mate. I'd bet she does all the cleaning around here," remarked Kurosaki, glancing meaningfully at Rukia's side of the room. He wasn't exactly lying, because there was a very clear distinction indeed.

"SHUT UP AND GET YOUR ASS OUTTA HERE!" the black-haired girl bellowed from inside the shower, not bothering to keep her voice down anymore. She could've sworn that the asshole was grinning as he closed the door behind him.

---

By four fifteen, Rukia found herself plodding across a baseball field with Ichigo's school-bag in one hand; the bastard had woken her up just so that she could finish up his homework while he went for baseball practice. _It's all right, it's just five more days_, she chanted to herself as she sank into one of the many spectator benches and wrenched out the worksheet their teacher had given to them as homework a few days ago.

She was thankful that it was just Math homework because, frankly, she wasn't very good at anything else. Tenses in languages baffled her, chemical equations never seemed to balance up properly, and her art skills were… Not up to standard. It was a pity, really, because she loved art so much. She preferred to think that no one else could understand her artistic sense, which consisted of scribbled bears and bunnies with eyelashes to show their gender difference. It was surprising to find that the orange-head had actually bothered to draw a border on one side of his worksheet to separate their rough workings from their presented answers, as their teacher had instructed them to do. Rukia herself never _did _bother to draw the stupid border, and she was aware that most of the people in her class didn't either.

The first half of the worksheet had been done already, in a neat print that she presumed was Kurosaki's handwriting. Yet another surprise about the champion of Kuchiki Rukia's list of the people she hated most. Although she'd known him ever since they were twelve years old, she realized that she didn't know much about him, besides the fact that his father was a rich businessman and his mother had passed away sometime ago. No siblings, perhaps? In fact, she couldn't even remember what had happened to cause her to hate him so much…

"Look out, Kuchiki-san!" An anxious call from the baseball field startled her out of her thoughts as she looked up to see what the commotion was all about, only to see something white flying towards her and hitting her right square on the forehead. Damn those baseballs – they were so hard and painful. For a moment, she found herself seeing bunnies dancing around her head singing "Mary had a little lamb" before passing out onto the bench, after having been hit by a ball from a homerun.

---

She was on a boat. It was swaying from side to side and making her feel rather dizzy, but not seasick. A comfortable feeling – it made her feel as though she was in the clouds, floating above everyone else. This particular cloud was warm and soft, she realized as she nuzzled into it, sighing contentedly. It also smelled somewhat like… Clean school uniform just out from the wash.

One violet eye opened groggily as Rukia took in her surroundings. Rather, her constantly changing surroundings, because she was moving up the stairs. Strange, she didn't feel as though she was walking, even though she was ascending up the steps. And her hands seemed to be hanging over something; the something that smelled like clean school uniform. Another violet eye opened and she blinked a few times to get her vision back into focus (a sense of déjà vu from earlier on, in the icepack incident). A sea of white. With a little bit of orange at the top, like orange fudge spilled over vanilla ice-cream. Damn, the imagery made her feel so hungry. Without much hesitation, the black-haired girl sank her teeth into the "vanilla ice-cream", awaiting the heavenly taste to spread throughout her mouth…

"What the fuck are you doing!"

Oh my, her ice-cream was talking. Did ice-cream usually use vulgarities in their speech? She didn't think so. And it tasted bad – it tasted like she'd just chewed on her school uniform. A pair of arms sprouted out of the sundae as the orange fudge turned around to form an angry face, and she found herself sitting at the top of a flight of steps, her ass hurting like shit. That shook her out of her dream-like state completely, and she glared at the culprit who'd just dropped her onto the ground deliberately.

"You again, Kurosaki," she spat, hoping that her glower would cause him to wilt into a puddle of goo, but to no avail.

"Bitch, you do not BITE the person who carried you up four storeys because you fainted during his baseball practice," the named person retorted, rubbing his right shoulder (the place where she'd sunk her teeth into) meaningfully, and frowning at her as though he wanted her to melt into a puddle of goo as well.

Credit given, Rukia _was_ a little taken aback when she was informed that he'd carried her while climbing to the fourth level (a great feat, no?), but she recovered quickly and shot back, "If it hadn't been for your stupid homerun I would've finished your Math homework in a jiffy without getting hurt on my head AND my ass, and we'd both be in class now." Inwardly, she groaned. Math was first period, but they'd missed the first half already, so there wasn't any point in rushing back to class – it would only result in more detention because she didn't have an excuse letter from the nurse's office. Might as well finish the journey and mend her head in case the baseball had killed too many of her brain cells. Then she would be able to sue Kurosaki's pants off, and be a very triumphant girl indeed.

Subconsciously, an evil grin spread across her pale face as she tried to get back onto her feet. Alas, she'd stayed on the ground for too long arguing with an idiot, and when she attempted to stand up, the blood rushed to her head too quickly, and she felt herself falling, falling, falling down the stairs…

And just like in a clichéd chick flick, Ichigo managed to catch her slim figure in the nick of the time, such that they seemed to be in the last stage of a tango, with her spine bent backwards and his arm holding her rear lightly as he gazed into her face, a smirk playing on his lips. Add a rose and the pose was perfect. Ouch, her ankle just twisted because of her awkward position. Gah, she really didn't like this guy because he seemed to bring her great misfortune every time they met, and the next thing he did did no more than add more points to her "Why I hate Kurosaki Ichigo" mental list.

The bastard lifted her up (to his credit, he did it kindly, like a gentleman would've done) and placed her in an arrangement such that he looked like a groom carrying his bride, before striding off towards the sick bay with certain sort of determination which helped him to deal with insults and kicks from the "pretty bride in white (well, the blouse of her school uniform _was _white)". They were lucky that most of the school was already in class because the very fact that they were actually _existing _within much less than a meter of distance between the two of them would have caused quite an uproar –Ichigo's fan-girls and Renji would definitely have _a lot_ to say about it.

Anyway, after a torturous period of dodging Rukia's deathly punches while trying to keep a firm hold on her small structure, Ichigo finally reached the sick bay and practically tossed her onto one of the beds, clearly glad to wash his hands clean of her. Highly displeased by the string of unfortunate events that had happened in the short span of a few hours (it'd started when he had stuffed that fucking ice pack down her back), the raven-haired girl sat up on the bed defiantly, making sure that the scowl on her face was evident.

"May I help you?" a soft-spoken voice came from behind the curtain that separated one bed from another. The school nurse's slender but slightly calloused hand pushed the curtain open gently as she turned to face the patient on the bed with a smile. At that, both students stopped glaring daggers at one another and smiled back at her a little sheepishly.

"Unohana-sensei, I got hit on the head by a baseball this morning," Rukia offered, but with less conviction than she intended. There was something about Unohana Retsu that made your emotions settle down like the low tides ebbing from the shore slowly and gracefully.

"And you?" the nurse asked, directing her question at the orange-head, who was currently leaning against the bed silently. Rukia couldn't help but feel a little victorious when she saw him twitch a little in surprise (_I mean, this guy never seemed to get flustered over **anything**_). But he covered his momentary shock swiftly with a lopsided grin and replied smoothly, "I'm fine, thanks. Aside from the fact that my fellow schoolmate attempted to murder me on our way up the stairs." At this, the victorious feeling died straight away as Unohana-sensei chuckled lightly.

"All right then, we'll have to fix you up before your next class."

Violet eyes blinked as Rukia nodded and let the school nurse do the necessary procedure. By this time, her arch nemesis had somehow found his way out of the sick bay without her noticing it and was probably enjoying their chance of cutting class with a valid excuse. As she thought of the million possibilities of things he could do before their next class started, she rolled her eyes and scoffed. _Just five more days and I'll be free!_

---

The female Kuchiki exited the nurse's office with an icepack (damn those cursed icepacks; she seemed to keep encountering them today) held to her forehead to stop the swelling, and was astonished to find Ichigo's dozing figure leaning against the wall opposite the door she'd just walked through. She couldn't quite bring herself to believe that he'd stood there waiting for _her_, instead of seizing the opportunity to slack off somewhere else. It just seemed so… _Weird_. She stepped closer and squinted at his serene face. So it _was_ true that most people looked much less frightening and unfriendly when they were asleep.

Rukia's eyes felt a slight stinging pain for a moment when the cold water that had condensed on the surface of her icepack began to trickle down her face and she hurriedly squeezed her eyes shut whilst drying her face with her sleeve. When her eyelids fluttered open, she found herself staring into orangey-brown orbs, and nearly jumped back in shock if not for her excellent control of her emotions (after all, she'd thought of killing so many people at different points of her life, but had never ended up committing any murder, showing her ability to restrain herself).

"Are you _that_ touched by my chivalrous actions?" Ichigo asked, frowning a little. If she'd been a bystander and not part of the conversation, she would've laughed out loud because he looked genuinely perplexed. But she wasn't a bystander.

"What?" she inquired intelligently, holding the icepack to her head again. Damn, her head felt like it was splitting apart – the after-effects of a strong impact.

"You're crying tears of joy because I painfully stood here the whole time you were chatting with Unohana-sensei about your injuries," he replied, pointing at her red eyes.

Then she realized that droplets of water were still hanging onto her eyelashes, and blinked them away exasperatedly. "I'm not crying, you moron. Water got into my eye-" It was at that moment that the hourly school bell decided to blast into the ears of the poor students, cutting Rukia's words short.

"We have Chemistry together now. It's in the lab; come to my locker because I want you to carry stuff for me," the orange-head commanded, completely forgetting whatever topic they'd been arguing about before, and turned on his heel to stride to the lockers, without waiting for his companion to catch up.

"Bastard," Rukia said under her breath as she followed in suit, ignoring the queer glances other students were throwing at her. Clearly, the news of him owning her for a week hadn't spread around the _whole school_ yet – whether it was good news of bad news she couldn't tell, because those who didn't know would probably think that she was finally succumbing to the almighty Kurosaki, while those who knew… Well, it wasn't very nice for one of your closest friends to rent you out to "the enemy" for a mere thousand dollars.

---

Chemistry in the laboratory was disastrous, and so was lunch, thus resulting in the unanimous conclusion that Kurosaki Ichigo and Kuchiki Rukia just couldn't get things right when they were working together. Their experiment during Chemistry had ended up with a small explosion because one of them had forgotten to turn off the gas supply while the other had struck a match before the gas could disperse away into the air. It was lucky that no one had gotten hurt, but they were sent to detention again, because they endangered the other students or something along that line. You'd think the richer kids would be let off the hook more easily, but it was probably due to the fact that they were so famous in the school already that the teachers loved punishing them with duties that their servants at home would've done for them such as cleaning the toilets.

Lunch was another affair altogether. A messy one, no doubt. Rukia had apparently gotten so pissed off with something Ichigo had said as a fleeting remark, and smashed his face into a plate of mashed potatoes, which was followed by a handful of fries flying through the air to land on her back (the masterpiece of one of the orange-head's fan-girls, perhaps), then some green toxic-looking jelly splattering all over another person's lunch table, until the whole canteen was in chaos. Seireitei probably never had to "sentence" so many students to detention at one go. Of course, the roots of the problem were given a tougher punishment than the rest, and that meant sacrificing their weekends to categorize the haphazardly arranged books in the library for say, four weeks or so.

When Rukia finally flopped down onto her bed, Momo had to help her up to the bathroom because she was so tired that she couldn't even walk properly. The fucking asshole had conveniently tossed all his detention duties into her hands – she had to clean more washrooms than one person could handle in a day, help clear up the mess in the canteen during mass detention, and help with some paperwork in the staff room.

"Whatever happened to the old-fashioned detention? The type in which we just sat at the back of a freezing room and pretend to do homework while the teacher dozed off in the front?" mumbled Rukia as she sank further into the bathtub. Every few minutes or so she jumped out of the water to breathe and shout out, "It's exploitation, I tell you! Damn the school and Kurosaki to the deepest pits of Hell!"

Outside, Momo heard her muffled shouts behind the bathroom door and shook her head sympathetically. It was tough being a rich kid.

---

_To readers: I think the main reason why I put off updating this story for so long was because I couldn't get any inspiration to churn out ideas and I didn't want to disappoint all of you with a short chapter with not much substance in it… Not that I'm saying this chapter is particularly satisfying – sure, it was a hell of a rollercoaster ride (that means it was FUN XD) writing it, but nothing's really happened besides some development of the relationship between Rukia and Ichigo. Sorry to those who wanted Rukia torturing Ichigo – we have quite a fair share of that in canon already, in my opinion. Well, she got to bite and kick him in this chapter! XD New characters will be brought in soon, I promise. For now, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter; I made it a little longer to make up for my long period of absence. :)_

_Thanks to: **rukiaprincess, Kitty, notnow, **_**_Kokuuei_****_, YL_****_, LadyRequiem, _****_Sousui, _****_Zyzychyn_****_, mikeee_****_, Danny-171984_****_, anonymus, _****_nightxXxshade_****_, Teara_****_sakura-no-hana-hoshi_****_, cantabile21, kobisaki, _****_Kuchiki Rukia-sama_****_dopeyPoo_****_, minitsu, deathberry, brok3nragd0ll, _****_FuturePast_****_, SHiNiGAMiLENNE_****_, phyrefox, _****_kurenoharu_****_, chikarin-chan_****_, Phoe-chan, _****_Astarael00_****_, Cringe_****_, Placid Snowflake_****_, anne522_****_, update, jiaxi, _****_mizz rukia, _****_Reyana Draconis_****_, Lin, _****_KagomeHigurashi66_****_, Cold Onyx Eyes_**

**_amwong88_**_: Jealousy will definitely play a part in this fic, and so will IchigoXRukiaXRenji because I am a sucker for that pairing. XD_

_**Kaira:** Perverted? Perhaps. XD Mwahahaha. _

_And anyone else I didn't manage to get from the review page. Thank you all so much! _

_Reviews will be very much appreciated. They may seem like small things to you, but they brighten up my day lots! –shot for being irritatingly clichéd- XD_


	4. Chapter Four

_Author's Notes: … I'm exhausted. But extremely happy that another chapter's been churned out, this time mostly in Ichigo's POV! (: I apologize for taking such a long time._

---

**Tumbling Down.**  
_Chapter Four. _

Kurosaki Ichigo on the outside was a better-than-average student who did pretty okay in his schoolwork (contradicting the belief that most kids in Seireitei Academy paid their way into the school and had nothing but air for brains) and excelled in his extra-curricular activities such as baseball. He was also portrayed as a slightly cold (because of the perpetual frown on his face; but oh so cool, to his fan-girls) and laidback person, who screwed around occasionally but never got too serious into a relationship with someone else. No one knew much about his family, aside from the fact that his father was some high-flying businessman who churned lots of money. His mother was almost non-existent, because he always went tight-lipped every time someone questioned him about her. As for siblings, no one was sure, actually. But then again, those were just boring aspects of a normal person's life and didn't interest the masses at all. They were just eager to know about which girl had been granted a date with him next Saturday, or which baseball game his team had won yet again. Every school needed someone prominent like this (Kuchiki Byakuya was just too high and mighty for this role), and he played his part pretty well, in everybody else's opinion. Well, except for Kuchiki Rukia, but that was beside the point.

But the school's favorite orange-head was actually rather different on the inside, if anyone cared to delve deeper. He did well in his academics only because he studied, just like everyone else did, and he won baseball matches only because he practiced, just like everyone else did. The rumors that flew about saying that many girls had lost their virginity to him were almost always false, although no one would believe him if he denied these incidences. So he stopped trying to argue his way out of these situations, after a while. It didn't hurt that they kept him popular; not that he cared much for fame.

In fact, his life was pretty mundane, just like everyone else's in Seireitei Academy. They were lucky to be born into rich families, and paid their way into everywhere they went (save for a few like our dear Kurosaki), some might turn out becoming really successful with the strong backing their parents provided, some might just lag behind others and have no choice but to learn the ropes of business and take over what their fathers built up so painfully, and some might just lead normal and simple lives. There were no "Oh no, my boss is going to fire me from my part-time job because I missed three days of work when I had a high fever and now I can't pay for my school fees" problems that they had to deal with – the most detrimental ones would probably be something like "Which bag should I buy; the _Louis Vuitton_ one or the _Gucci_ one!"

And so, Ichigo was actually pretty pleased with the existence of a certain puny Kuchiki, because she kept his life entertaining, and she seemed different from everyone else in the school. For one, she didn't worship the ground he treaded on (not one bit), and harbored a sense of great dislike for him – he was sure that she'd quite forgotten what had happened to cause their mutual enmity. It had been a single incident in the past that probably set off a spark, and sent things rolling downhill from then on. They'd been twelve (maybe thirteen?), when he entered her class as the "new transfer student", introducing himself with a slight grimace because he knew that people would laugh at his seemingly girlish name. There was no point in explaining because all those morons just _didn't_ get it anyway. At that time, their hormones were still pretty much under control, and no one thought of how great it would be to be the girlfriend of the richest boy in the country (besides Kuchiki Byakuya, perhaps); there were no fake smiles or flirting – if you thought the name "Ichigo" was amusing, you just laughed straight into the person's face. Come to think of it, Ichigo actually liked those "innocent" times much better.

Anyway. He'd been surprised that the black-haired girl sitting near the window wasn't laughing or shouting, "He's named after a fruit!" like all the other dumb-asses in the class, even though the Kanji of his name had been printed clearly across the blackboard by the teacher, and it looked nothing like "strawberry". She was just staring out of the window, looking positively disinterested with what was happening around her, and that pissed Ichigo off for some reason. It wasn't that he was an attention-maniac and was unused to having people not being paying attention to him; he just wanted her to turn her head to glance at him once, at least. At present time, he mused that he'd actually liked the girl when he first set his eyes upon her, although he was sure that those feelings had died out after many years of plotting against each other for the stupidest issues ever.

Because Fate loves to mess up the lives of people, Ichigo was assigned to the empty seat behind the girl with jet black hair that made it look almost indigo. She didn't even bat an eyelid when he walked past her, and that just infuriated him even further. And he believed that this was the reason why he'd started throwing random objects from his pencil case at her head, watching them bounce off with fascination. He recalled that the blue eraser that he'd been quite fond of had been the last straw. In the midst of class (he vaguely remembered that it had been arithmetic), she'd stood up and drawn herself to full height, which wasn't such a formidable thing really, although her blazing violet eyes frightened him rather although he wouldn't admit it, and promptly socked him in the face. With a crack, he felt as though he'd fallen into a hot spring head-first, followed by warm liquid which began to flow down his nose and onto his brand new school shirt.

Ichigo remembered with a triumphant chuckle that the girl had been sent to the principal's office straight away, while the teacher (a female, of course) cooed at him and helped him into the sick bay. The downside was, his nose remained crooked for the rest of his life – but the other girls seemed to like it very much that way, so he left it like that. Very quickly after, he found out that the fiery violet-eyed girl was the younger sister of Kuchiki Byakuya, and her name was Rukia. Her Royal Highness had presented him with the prized information of her first name while she was pounding him to death in the school playground after he'd called her "Bunny Underwear" too many a time. He can still remember that particular painful scene very vividly – she'd been swinging on the rusty school swing, up, down, up, down, and reaching higher heights each time she kicked off. He'd been incredibly jealous, because he never could bring himself to swing up so high. Scowling, he planted himself in front of her and yelled, "BUNNY UNDERWEAR, GET OFF NOW!" Predictably, she merely shrugged and continued her momentum. "Didn't you hear me, Bunny Underwear?" the boy questioned, still frowning. Now, although Kurosaki Ichigo may seem like an asshole (at the tender age of twelve, imagine that!), but in actual fact he was rather nice to everyone _besides _Rukia. It had always baffled him about how worked up he would get if matters concerned the girl who wore white underwear with pink bunny prints – he'd never figured out the reason behind her fetish with rabbits either.

When the fifth "Bunny Underwear" was out of his mouth, Ichigo suddenly found himself lying on the ground with a throbbing pain at the back of his head, and the girl herself atop him in a straddling position, her fists driving hard punches into his face. Fortunately for them, they had been quite blissfully unaware of the fact that their current position was rather suggestive. As the small-sized girl hit him, she growled, "My name is Rukia. RU-KI-A. Kuchiki Rukia. And I like my underwear so shut up!"

He had been lucky to get away without a disfigured face. He hadn't dared to retaliate, because even at twelve years old, he had a policy about not hitting women, although he considered scrapping the idea as the nurse applied iodine to his wounds and earned several inhuman howls from the orange-haired boy. Somewhere across the hall, Rukia smirked jubilantly, even though she was in detention. One point to Kuchiki Rukia.

What Ichigo didn't know was that she had been terrified to discover that she'd violated another school rule in less than two weeks, and prayed with all her might that her brother would somehow never come to know about it. Of course, her wish had not been granted and she was subjected to one of his frighteningly silent lectures and demeaning gazes as her hands trembled on her lap. Without Renji and Shuuhei standing outside her room bodyguard-style, she would've fainted from the stress she was under, when her brother was within a one-meter circumference.

And so, Rukia remained the winner throughout all their "battles" during that year, although she _did_ try to avoid violence lest Byakuya was called to the principal's office to settle his younger sister's problems yet again. Her opponent was badly humiliated with 298375906349 points to her, and perhaps 73 points to him. It was rather devastating for his male ego, really.

The four seasons passed quickly, and it was a new year again. They were both thirteen, and were officially teenagers. Eighth grade, the grade just before one would be christened as a "high school student". Frankly, our two protagonists didn't really care about the school system; so long as their grades didn't really slip that much and they could continue to have fun. Fun, in Ichigo's terms, was to win Rukia in the meaningless war between the both of them – it never occurred to him that he'd started it by throwing things at her in class. Going headfirst against her had been a bad option, as he'd learnt throughout his first year in this new school.

No matter, there was always _the_ new tactic.

As the students filed into the school in their starched uniforms and expensive cars, both Kurosaki and Kuchiki caught each others' glances, and for a moment there was a staring contest between the two eighth-graders, even though they seemed very much like preschool students. The gaze was broken soon after, when Byakuya looked at Ichigo with the famous withering look that sent many running to their mothers. Shuddering inwardly, the orange-haired boy managed a queasy smile at the Kuchiki, much to Rukia's amusement. It was cruel, but she _did_ enjoy seeing her brother's glare being directed at someone else – it was even better that the "someone else" was someone that she didn't like at all.

Similar to the year before, they shared several classes together, much to the dismay of the both of them. By now, Ichigo had made several close friends like Sado Yasutora, Ishida Uryuu and Inoue Orihime. It made Rukia feel a sort of hollow feeling in the place where her heart was, but she dismissed it as being sad about having no one to bully. No, she was not jealous, she was sure. Besides, she had her trusty friends too – Abarai Renji and Hisagi Shuuhei. She wasn't very close to any of the girls, but hey, Inoue-san's friends were all guys too, so it didn't worry Rukia too much.

Because Fate wants to play yet again, they landed in the same arithmetic class, with her seat next to the window and his seat behind her. Simultaneously, they sighed. Then glared at one another with a certain kind of vengeance that no one else could mimic.

"What're you sighing about?" Rukia asked in hushed tones (sounding as though she was afraid of something), since the teacher was still droning away about statistical graphs. He wasn't fooled, because her back was arched straight, and her violet eyes had sparks dancing around in them – she was in battle mode already, on their first week of school. A year ago, he would've insulted her verbally and earned another fist in his face (ah, déjà vu), but now, he simply smirked at her.

She gaped.

He smirked again, because that had been the expression he'd predicted from her, as he practiced that laidback and irritating expression that he had on his face at the moment in front of the mirror he had at home. She was definitely unused to the new combating strategy that he was applying, but quickly clamped her mouth shut and willed herself to look normal again, succeeding after a few tries. After all, a member of the Kuchiki family must never display their emotions so clearly in public.

---

At present, he couldn't really remember what happened after that, except for the fact that he had actually won Rukia that time because she didn't have a comeback. Hmm, maybe he would ask her about it later in the morning during class just to irritate her and to gloat about The Day His Winning Streak Started.

For now, he just wanted to get some fresh air to clear his head a little. No one else seemed to be up, but then again it _was_ one in the morning and people did not get up from their beds to take a walk around the school at such a timing, usually. Problems at home were plaguing his mind, and depriving him of the sleep that he desperately needed, especially since the baseball championships were coming up really soon. Apparently, his father had found a new woman – something that displeased Ichigo rather, because he knew that the old man had never gotten over his mother, and that was just unfair to all the women he set his eyes on. Of course, there were those who threw themselves at the older Kurosaki's feet because of his wealth and power… Ichigo didn't feel any sort of pity towards them. It seemed as though the relationship this time wouldn't last too long either. He sighed, letting out a whoosh of air that he hadn't realized he was holding.

Thinking of "the enemy" had been relaxing, and it took his mind off family matters. He didn't quite understand why, but every time he pictured her scowling face, he would feel as though his problems had dissipated away. It wasn't because she was the "love of his life" or anything near to that, but probably because he found her interesting. She stood out from the rest, with her fiery temper and cutting remarks, and the way she never got into bitch fights with the rest of the female population in school, but wouldn't hesitate to drive her heel into someone's crotch whenever she felt like doing so. Perhaps she was a feminist, or a lesbian. Ichigo toyed with that idea for a while, but dropped it soon after. If she was really inclined to those of her own sex, she would've made a move on her room-mate (Hinamori, was it?) a long, long time ago.

His thoughts were cut off abruptly when he heard shuffling – shuffling that sounded very much like someone walking down the corridor towards him. Brown eyes with a tinge of orange glanced at his surroundings, slowly widening when he realized in horror that he was in the girls' dormitory and would suffer dire consequences if that shuffling turned out to be a teacher because there was no way he would be able to convince the teacher that he hadn't just deflowered a girl and was on his way back to his own room. Besides, the "lights-out" timing was eleven, unless you desperately needed to get to the library for some last-minute studying before a test the next day. Quietly but swiftly, Ichigo made his way across the corridor in a half-skip, cursing under his breath because he knew he looked utterly ridiculous. By the time he'd reached the safety of the vending machine that was big enough to hide his tall form, the shuffling had stopped. He frowned. How annoying. Ah well, he might as well get a drink while he was at it – at least he could say that he'd gotten up because of an unexplainable craving for Coke.

The corridor was dark, and the only light came from the "EXIT" sign above the door that led to a flight of steps, and from the white light of the vending machine. As Ichigo stepped out from beside the vending machine, he did not expect to see a pale face peering at him, looking as though she'd just crawled out of a coffin. It did not occur to him that he looked almost as scary, and that people do not just hop out from behind vending machines in the dead of the night.

Both parties screamed, then covered their mouths with their hands, then squinted at each other for a while before the moment of realization, and then dropped their hands and glared at each other.

"What the fuck are you doing out here, at two in the morning?" Rukia spoke first, not even attempting to mask the irritation in her tone. She looked disheveled, with dark circles around her eyes and her lips set in a very thin line. That usually meant that she was going to cry, or that she was in pain. Ah, female troubles that they claimed he would never understand even though he'd paid attention to "The Menstrual Cycle" in Bio class.

"I was getting a drink, until you crept over looking very much like Sadako," he answered truthfully, before dropping a few coins into the vending machine and hitting the button for a can of Coke. He watched her eyebrows knit together as though she was in deep thought.

"Who the fuck is Sadako?" she asked after a pause, stepping in to buy her own drink. Hot coffee, he predicted. Her finger pressed the button below the picture of a cup with swirling coffee within. Bingo.

It surprised him really, that he knew so much about Rukia. Sometimes, he wondered if she knew that much about him too.

Sighing, he replied, "She's the freaky girl from The Ring. You know, the one who climbed out of a well and terrorized everyone through a video tape, yada yada." She continued staring at him blankly.

He raised an eyebrow at her. "Clearly, you aren't up to date about the entertainment world AT ALL," he informed her before taking a swig of his Coke. Eck, sugar overload.

"Nii-sama never did like me to watch shows that killed your brain cells," she said, meaning it as a retort although her tone was a tad too subdued to be an insult. Ichigo looked at her, eyes narrowing slightly. He never did like Kuchiki Byakuya – not in the way he was loggerheads with Rukia, but the way one wouldn't want to touch dry ice because it was so cold that you could feel a burning sensation if you came into contact with it. Right now, he wasn't pleased with the melancholic vibes that the younger Kuchiki was giving off; the Rukia he had grown up with wasn't like this at all.

"Here, throw this away," he commanded, shoving an empty Coke can at her. The dustbin was just a few steps away, but he just wanted to make her angry by reminding her that she was still his property for four more days.

It worked, and she snatched the can away from him heatedly before stomping off to dispose of it, together with her half-filled coffee cup. Tonight, it just seemed too bitter. Besides, her estrogen levels were fluctuating so badly that she felt her taste-buds had changed too.

When she came back, she declared resolutely, "Once this bet is over, I NEVER want to have anything to do with you again, Kurosaki." Somehow this idea made him feel unsettled, and he told himself it was because he wouldn't have anyone to argue with him anymore. "And then you can go hang out with all those disgusting girls who throw themselves at you just because you're richer than they are," she added, sounding a little… Jealous? He smirked.

"Why, feeling jealous?" he voiced out his previous thought, still smirking at her. She looked at him with an expression that clearly spelt, "What The Fuck?" His own expression didn't waver.

"I don't even _like_ you, so why would I be jealous?" Rukia scoffed, giving him her signature "I am mightier than you" look. He felt that she should patent it, because no one could make someone else feel so small with a single glare – he would've liked to say that he was immune to the effects of it, but he wasn't, even after three years.

He didn't know what possessed him to say the following statement, but he said it anyway. "I bet I can make you fall head over heels in love with me in six months," he said quietly, brown eyes gazing into her violet ones. She blinked.

"What?" she asked, her voice equally quiet.

He felt himself grinning and gaining confidence. "I said, I bet I can make you fall in love with me in merely six months."

Rukia made a weird clicking sound at the back of her throat and pretended to be deep in thought. A few seconds ticked by. "No, you can't. What do you think we are, main characters of an oh-so-wonderfully-unrealistic romance novel? No one makes bets like that these days," she rattled on sarcastically into his face. Hmm, the reaction he'd foreseen. Violent objection.

"Well, Shuuhei did," Ichigo countered, gesturing to the both of them, who were currently members of such a bet. He heard a low growl from her. "That's DIFFERENT," she shot back stubbornly, even though her argument wasn't backed at all.

"Then you're just scared," he said after a period of silence from the two of them. She sent a fist into his stomach, which he managed to block, but with much effort. Oomph, her punches were still as strong as ever. That didn't stop him from taunting her further. "You're scared that you'll really be smitten by me and lose the bet."

She let out a strangled scream and looked as though she was going to beat him to pulp when she turned pale and doubled over, hand clutching at her abdomen. He thought she was just acting, but when she didn't get up after a few seconds, he stooped down as well so that they were at the same eye level.

Are you all right, he wanted to say, but that would've been too uncharacteristic of him to do. Instead, he stuck out his index finger and flicked her forehead. "We'll settle this tomorrow morning," he decided, peering at her pale face.

When the piercing pain stopped, she looked up and glowered at him. "I'm not scared. But you can't measure LOVE, so the bet's just going to fall through," she said matter-of-factly, putting a hand against the vending machine to support herself as she got up from the ground. He frowned. Trust this Kuchiki to think logically when she was in pain.

"That's easy. Love is just a nice word for physical attraction, so the winner just has to makes the other person want to kiss him or her," Ichigo said in a business-like tone. The raven-haired girl sneered in response, "How clichéd and disgusting."

"Well, I'm confident enough about winning this bet, so I can understand why you don't want to participate in it," he replied easily, because he knew that would spark off an array of predictable emotions from Rukia which would ultimately lead to her accepting his challenge in the end.

After a certain amount of internal turmoil which Ichigo watched with amusement, Rukia finally relented, spinning around to glare at him once again.

"I accept it. However, it's only on the condition that I get to decide what the winner and the loser gets because my chances of me wanting to kiss you are perhaps less than you wanting to kiss me, I'd expect," she said in one whole breath. No matter, he knew neither of them would win anyway, because they were both too stubborn to budge. It was enough that she would be there to bicker with him and keep him amused for six months, at least.

"Deal."

_To be continued._

---

_To readers: Yayee, six more months of IchiRuki goodness. You didn't think I'd stop at seven days, would you? XD My spacing's always wonked out when I upload it and that makes me quite irritated indeed. I hope it doesn't pose as a big problem for any of you dear readers out there. Anyway, this chapter serves to tell more about Ichigo's character, and how their eternal feud came to be. Also, the bet has been "extended", much to Rukia's annoyance. Watch out for more interaction between the two! I'll probably bring in new characters soon – they're the ones I usually work with, so you can guess who. XD Oh, another note is that Ichigo's father is most probably not Isshin, because Isshin is hardly the role of a mean-and-cold father. Maybe Ryuuken, but then poor Uryuu would be father-less. _

_Thanks to: **kurenoharu, Phoe-chan, Jeebus dirtface, cynlee, rukiaprincess, kittyblah, nightxXxshad, Makino114, Fenris Amon, Lunair, mikigm31, TwilightHack, ruukii, FuturePast, dopeyPoo, Yami no Shoujou, SHiNiGAMiLENNE, dOkei, Placid Snowflake, TurkWriter, jiaxi, Syneiam, mochi rabbit, Statik, xXxReixXx, eBooeBoo, gossa, inugrlluvsanime, Sonatre, Elukazina, Drunken Panda12,**_**_ahhmeii, aster1point5, Roxysan_**

_**KagomeHigurashi66:** I love that pairing too (now, ain't that obvious?)! XD_

_**notnow:** Yes, I think he's a little too subdued in canon, don't you think? (:_

_**kisuteri:** Kumi-chan! XDD I'm glad that you like this fic! –glomps-_

_**jadeb:** I am honored!_

_**rukiagiugiu and all those who waited for my update:** I apologize. Really. ):_

_Thank you all so much for reviewing! –hugs all- Hope this chapter will bring in more reviews too! (:_


End file.
